Estes Park Opinion

Americans are good

The Newton, Connecticut rampage a week ago raises so many questions for our free, democratic society:

How do we put a stop to this kind of violence without diminishing our freedoms? Can we?

Why are there so many solutions for dealing with our violence?

How does this relate to Estes Park? Does killing animals here relate to human violence?

Is our democracy losing ground and are Americans less responsible for our freedom than we used to be?

Everyone has their own questions about Connecticut and violence and these are just a few questions that I have been thinking about.

The aftermath of the shootings reminds me of an 1835 de Toqueville statement in Democracy in America, "America is great because Americans are good." Yet we have to keep working at achieving that greatness. Democracy is great but it is far from free.

The steady stream of mass violence, especially over the last several years, has finally presented us with a sobering wake up call. So often these catastrophic events generate a myriad of excuses and a vast variety of solutions.

Some will say it is the fault of the National Rifle Association, which is an armaments manufacturer's lobbying organization with about four million individual members. Consider the many individual and corporate lobbying organizations that put over a billion dollars of lobbying funds into the 2012 national elections.

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Can we just blame political lobbying organizations for what we don't like in our society?

Such blaming absolves independent persons of responsibility for our gun culture; everyone should assume responsibility for important aspects of our social values, including guns.

Today, as in most of the last century, the United States has been the dominant world military and political power, which has been accompanied with weapons. Theodore Roosevelt gave voice to this when he claimed that nothing was more thrilling than going to battle. For a long time there has been a powerful, dominating and successful military orientation in this country. The United States was the difference maker in both world wars. Our history of manifest destiny saw the conquering of the wilderness and its original inhabitants and is well documented.

Yet, our country accepts more immigrants than any other country and these new Americans will be an increasingly important part of our country in the twenty-first century. We have practiced what Ezra Lazuras stated and appears on the Statue of Liberty, "Give me your tired and your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free."

To be continuously improving, democracy must re-invent itself and we all have responsibility for its discovery and nurturing. And we should find ways to constructively share it with more people here and abroad.

As we observe the stumbling and missteps regarding Washington's responses to the current fiscal cliff crisis, I have asked myself if anything significant can happen on the national scene to rectify the conditions that have brought about the multiple massacres and the seeming lack of control of firearms. If so much has struggled or been held up in the Washington gridlock, can we expect meaningful action regarding domestic violence?

Weapons symbolize more than just firearms to many people. Restricting their access now could send a frightening message of federal control to millions of people. Yet, what steps need to be taken now to create a noticeably safer American society?

Going back through our presidential history, some presidents took courageous steps to address serious national problems and threats. Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Gerald Ford passed muster, often at the expense of personal and short term political goals. James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson and Warren Harding failed to lead when courage and boldness were called for.

We have opportunities at the local level to courageously respond to our challenges. Some will heed the call and some will vote "present".

Each of us, in our own ways, can respond to the ever changing requirements of our democracy. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, "When the people lead, governments must follow." When enough of the community, state or nation does so, we continue to deserve the salute, America is great because Americans are good.